Make This Work
by Nova Raven
Summary: "Anything new?" "No," Driskoll replied, almost desensitized to the pain the question caused him, and the wrenching sensation in his gut that the answer evoked. Kellach was still gone and they still had no idea what had happened to him over a year ago...
1. Chapter 1

"Anything new?" Moyra asked when the two started walking. She had arrived at his house that evening full of cautious hope that the mechanical dragon perched on her shoulder had cautiously given her.

"No," Driskoll replied, almost desensitized to the pain the question caused him, and the wrenching sensation in his gut that the answer evoked.

"Oh," Moyra looked down at the ground for a second and sighed, her red hair falling in her face. Lochinvar cooed, rubbing his metal head against her cheek, and she stroked the little beast's head in resignation. "He was oddly excited today, and I thought that maybe…"

"It's been over a year Moyra," Driskoll looked out at the walls of Promise, eyes on the setting sun. "He's probably dead."

Moyra swallowed. Locky had been so agitated when she got back from helping her mother at the market that she had let hope spring into her chest for the first time in months that maybe something had changed since that fateful night.

"I had just hoped…" She started, but could not continue, not wanting to say it. She had let herself hope for a moment that Kellach, who had disappeared on the one year anniversary of the christening of Curston to Promise, had returned.

"I can't let myself hope anymore," Driskoll gripped the pummel of his sword. "It hurts too much."

At fourteen, he was starting to grow into a man. His voice had deepened, and while it still cracked like crazy sometimes, it was no longer the voice of the boy he had been when Zendric had first made them Knights of the Silver Dragon. Just as Moyra was no longer the the little street rat she had been when Curston was almost destroyed. She might still be as silent as a cat and have kept her sneaky ways, but she had grown too, looking more and more like her mother as the months had gone on.

But tonight, even at fifteen, Driskoll could still see a younger version of his friend who had let herself be optimistic for just a moment.

"Sometimes I still can't believe it," Moyra said, as the two started to walk together.

In the early days of Kellach's disappearance, the Knights and Driskoll's parents had torn Promise apart looking for the missing boy. Torin had patrols roaming the areas surrounding Promise daily. When a month passed with no word, and another month after that, the search effort lost steam, as everyone had run out of places to look.

Moyra and Driskoll had fallen out for a while after that, each blaming the other for Kellach's disappearance. It wasn't until a tragedy had befallen Moyra about eight months prior that they became close again. Driskoll had been the first person to find her, bloody and crying in an ally. They didn't speak of what had happened, but Driskoll figured it out. Reunited, the two struggled to maintain their role as Knights when their brother and best friend was gone. Likely, for good.

"Neither can I," Driskoll agreed. "Everything feels so different now." The streets were mostly safe to walk at night, as long as they stayed out of the darker parts of town. Moyra sighed, leaning her head on Driskoll's shoulder briefly, her friend almost taller than her now. Driskoll reached behind her to scratch her back reassuringly.

And then everything happened too fast. Locky let out a startled noise in a tone Moyra couldn't quite identify, and was snatched off Moyra's shoulder by a figure in a hooded clock.

For a moment, the knights were shocked as the figure ran off with Locky squawking in his arms. "Hey!" Driskoll cried, recovering from his shock to begin running after the figure in the dark cloak. "That's my brother's dragon!" And the stranger stopped dead, whirling around to face Driskoll, though the boy was still unable to see the figure's face, shadowed both by the cloak and the dim light.

"This is your brother's dragon?" A raspy teenage boy's voice emerged from behind the cloak. For the first time, Moyra and Driskoll were able to see that Locky had curled around the boys's neck, gears grinding happily.

"Yeah!" That was when Driskoll was able to get close enough to the boy to press the tip of his sword against the stranger's throat. Locky snarled briefly.

"You got him!" Moyra ran up behind Driskoll.

"Moyra?" The strange boy gasped, not moving with the threat of Driskoll's blade close at hand.

"How do you know my name?" Moyra demanded, poking the stranger in the chest.

The boy whispered in a hoarse voice, "I know you."

"Well I don't know you," Moyra snapped, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Wait, Moyra," Driskoll halted her with his hand. "I think I know him too," Still keeping his blade steady, Driskoll drew back the hood.

A dirt blackened face meet Driskoll's. The boy's hair was long and loose, caked with dirt, but obviously blond when clean. His eyes were pale blue and violent scars crisscrossed his features, marring a young face. There was something vaguely familiar about the boy, but in the dark, Moyra couldn't quite place it.

"Satisfied?" The boy snapped, suddenly tense.

"Yeah, I guess," The boy quickly drew his hood up. "What's your name?"

The boy laughed. "It took me a minute, but I know who you are. Your voice has changed."

Driskoll frowned at the odd comment. "I'm surprised you don't recognize me Driskoll. Has one year really made you forget your brother?"

"Oh my gods," Moyra whispered, "Kellach?"

The boy grinned wryly. "The one and only. Sorry I didn't recognize you before Driskoll. Your voice threw me off." He paused a minute. "Can we go back to our house? I have some things I need to tell you guys."

Kellach must have been exhausted, because he ended up leaning on Driskoll for the walk home. Driskoll noticed that Kellach's head didn't move around taking in the scene. His brother's gaze remained firmly fixed upon the ground in front of them.

Torin was out making his rounds as captain of the watch, and Jourdain was still at her tower, so the house was deserted when the knights arrived. Kellach walked falteringly toward a chair, and collapsed in it. He seemed to be concentrating very hard, but he did not look around. "Have you guys changed anything?" He asked, turning in Driskoll's direction.

"No," Driskoll murmured, "None of us are around the house enough to need to change anything." Kellach let out an audible sigh of relief. Driskoll probably should have found something wrong with this act, but at the moment he didn't think too much about it.

"So what happened to you?" Moyra demanded. "You've been gone a year!"

Kellach pulled his hood back from his head, his face downcast. "I was kidnapped," He started, "The night after the party. I had just left Mom's when someone hit me on the head," He rubbed the back of his head in remembered pain. "I woke up in a small dungeon room," Kellach's voice grew wary. He shifted, obviously uncomfortable with this next part.

"My captors kept me restrained and gagged most of the time, so that I couldn't get out of there," Kellach's eyes were dark. He hugged himself, and Driskoll could see scars on his arms. "They tortured me, trying to find out stuff about the order. How many of us there were, who was part of the order, where Zendric was." Closing his eyes, Kellach continued. "The torture sessions were the only time they removed the gag. I never let anything slip, not a word,"

Moyra could tell that Kellach was proud of himself, and she walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "They kept hurting me. I guess they didn't realize that they weren't going to get anything out of me, because it just got worse. They seemed set on making me scream." Kellach shuddered, fists clenched.

Moyra leaned over, beginning to trace the scars on Kellach's arm. She asked him. "How bad did they hurt you?"

"You don't need to know..." Kellach started, but Moyra cut him off.

"Kellach, you're my best friend. Driskoll and I need to know how bad they hurt you," Moyra's face was set in concern, but Kellach didn't seem to notice.

"Let me get through the story first," Kellach insisted, pushing Moyra's hand away. Moyra nodded, but sat down next to Kellach anyway. Driskoll joined her.

"Anyway, I finally managed to escape," Kellach took a deep breath, and quickly released it. "But, it was at a price." Kellach must have decided to stop at that because he abruptly changed topics. "I wandered around a bit after that, hitching rides and getting help whenever I stopped at a town. I was delayed a bit at the beginning because the owner of an inn I stopped at insisted in calling a cleric to heal my wounds. It was too late to heal most of them seamlessly, so I've got a few scars."

Kellach smiled wryly and continued, "Eventually I got here. Everything seemed so strange, like it was from another life. That was when I felt Locky's presence." The dragonet cooed and rubbed against Kellach's neck. "I managed to find you guys by tracking Locky, and that was when I took Lochinvar. I didn't realize that it was you because your voice had changed. I thought someone had stolen Locky."

"Why would my voice make any difference?" Driskoll asked in confusion. "Couldn't you look and see that it was me?"

Kellach bit his lip, rubbing the back of his neck. "Umm, remember how I said that I escaped at a price?" When Driskoll nodded Kellach continued, "I jumped out a window. The place that I was being held was really high up, so I fell a good distance." Kellach's hand halted on his neck. "I whacked the back of my head really hard. That was when the innkeeper found me and called a cleric.

"I very nearly didn't live," Kellach was talking rapidly now, trying to get everything out before he thought better of it. "I had broken a ton of bones, and lost a lot of blood." Kellach lowered his hand from his neck, and rubbed his eyes with it.

"It was nearly a month before I woke up, and I was in and out of consciousness for the better part of two months," Moyra gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "I woke up in a soft bed, aching all over. It was dark out, that's the first thing that I remember registering, which was strange because I could hear morning birds whistling. At first I thought that the room was just dark, but then the innkeeper told me that the windows were open and light was pouring in. That was when I realized..." Kellach's voice grew thick. He swallowed hard and completed his sentence. "That's when I realized I was blind."

Driskoll took a close look at Kellach's eyes then. "That's why my voice threw you off," he realized, "My voice was still high pitched when you vanished."

"Yeah," Kellach acknowledged. "You really gave me a scare there."

"You... you can't see anything?" Moyra asked, seeming to be holding back the temptation to wave her hand in front of his face.

"Nothing," Kellach murmured, "Everything is just, black."

"Kellach, I'm so sorry," Driskoll gasped, "I can't imagine how hard this must be."

"It's actually not too bad now that I've gotten used to it," Kellach said, but Driskoll could tell that his brother was lying.

"Kellach, don't ever try to lie to your best friend and brother. We can tell," Moyra smiled, and then realized that Kellach couldn't see it. "I'm smiling Kellach."

"I figured," Kellach's voice sounded miserable now that he had let his strong front drop. "But not a word about my blindness to Mom and Dad. They'll have a fit."

"But what if Mom knows some spell that will help you?" Driskoll asked.

"We can figure it out on our own," Kellach said, "Imagine how Mom and Dad will act if they find out. Dad'll get distant. Mom won't leave me alone. I'm sixteen. I don't need that. That's why I need you two to help me." His tone grew firmer. "But I don't want to be helped on every little thing. I'm going to need to learn how to function on my own eventually, but I will need some help at first." Kellach shrugged.

"Of course we'll help," Moyra cried, "How could you think we wouldn't?" It was that moment when Jourdain decided to walk in the door. She dropped the books that she was carrying in shock at her son sitting in the family room. Driskoll watched as Kellach turned to face the direction the sound of the book falling had created. "Hi Jourdain," Moyra supplied, for Kellach's purposes.

"Hey mom," Kellach smiled weakly. "Long time no see." Only Driskoll and Moyra got the faint attempt at humor.

Needless to say, there were many tears shed by Jourdain, and Kellach's cloak was pretty wet by the time that Jourdain saw fit to send Kellach and Driskoll to bed and Moyra home. Moyra left through the front door, but Driskoll didn't doubt that she would be in the boys' room when they got up there.

Not one to disappoint, Driskoll found Moyra sitting on Driskoll's bed cleaning her nails with her knife. "'Bout time you got up here." Moyra admonished, tucking her knife back in her boot and crossing her arms.

Kellach sighed and held his hands slightly outward and in front of him as he tried to find his bed. His fingers touched the blankets, still made and untouched after Kellach had vanished.

"You guys didn't touch my bed?" Kellach asked in surprise.

"Saw no reason to," Driskoll shrugged.

"Hey Driskoll, could you show me where my night clothes are folded in the dresser?" Kellach asked, and Driskoll nodded, but then remembered, "Sure Kellach." This was going to take some getting used to.

As Kellach changed shirts, Driskoll noticed how many scars crossed his brother's back. They were all over his back in lines. _Lashes,_ Driskoll realized with a start. "Kell, wait," Driskoll walked over to Kellach. "Moyra, come here."

Moyra trotted over, realizing with a gasp what Driskoll had seen. "Oh my gods, Kellach," She murmured, running her finger over one of the scars.

Kellach turned toward the front, bearing to Moyra and Driskoll a whole new level of horror. There were lashes of course, but also lines cut across his chest, obviously made by a knife, and someone very skilled at causing pain.

"How bad do they look?" Kellach asked, unable to see the looks of absolute horror on his friend's faces.

"Oh..." Was all that Moyra could say.

"Kellach, they really hurt you," Driskoll murmured in shock, touching a line on Kellach's shoulder and allowing his finger to trace the scar tissue.

Kellach lowered his head, sightless eyes firm. "Yeah. But I'm fine now."

The two of them stared at him in shock, not moving. "Guys," Unable to see their faces, Kellach pulled his shirt on, brushing Moyra and Driskoll's hands from his body. "I'm fine. I'm here now aren't I?"

Moyra looked skeptical, but opted to let it go. "How did you get here?" Moyra murmured. "I mean, you had to make it all the way through Promise to get to us."

Kellach shrugged. "I know Promise like the back of my hand. And… I've got a lot of practice navigating without sight when no one will help you.

"I remembered the sounds and smells that I used to barely associate with places. I barely was able to call them back," Kellach's voice dropped. "Then I could feel Locky, and I figured that he was with you."

"Kellach," Driskoll murmured, "Can't you see through Locky?"

Kellach frowned. "I suppose so. I hadn't really thought about it."

Locky cooed. Nudging Kellach's hand, the clockwork dragon looked up at Kellach. "I think he wants you to try."

Kellach nodded. "I will," He closed his eyes. Locky turned his head back and forth. Then Kellach gasped, and he opened his eyes and fell backwards. "Oh Gods."

"What happened?" Moyra gasped, grabbing Kellach's arm to steady him.

"There was nothing," Kellach seemed shaken, and tears were beginning to fill his eyes. "I looked through Locky's eyes like I usually do, but there was nothing!" He sounded so angry, but his tone was laced with a bitter disappointment.

The knights stood in silence for a moment. Kellach moved over to lay back on his bed. "It's so soft," He said quietly, almost to himself. Moyra's heart twisted, as she sat down next to him. Suddenly, she moved closer and hugged Kellach tightly.

"I'm so glad you're home," she whispered, not too surprised to hear tears in her voice. After a moment of shock, Kellach hugged her back tightly.

"Me too," He murmured, a hand stroking her hair.

"I promise we'll find a way to make this work, some way," Moyra curled her hands in his nightshirt subconsciously, not wanting to lose that physical proof that her friend was still there. Kellach didn't respond, but only held her tighter.

Moyra didn't leave that night. The knights all slept together like they hadn't since they were children.

* * *

May or may not post more, but they will all be drabbles of what happens next.

Thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

A lighter sleeper than her friends, Moyra was the first to wake up when she heard a muffled whimpering. Instantly alert, she froze, listening for the source of the sound.

"No, no, please, stop…" It was Kellach's voice. Moyra flew out of bed, knife already grasped in her hand, ready to take on whatever threat may be attacking her friend.

After a quick scan, no threat was immediately obvious. She relaxed slightly, but heard a muffled cry from Kellach again. "I won't tell you, I can't, I can't tell you," He was chanting in his sleep, head thrashing back and forth on his pillow. "Stop, stop, please!"

Moyra's heart sank, instantly realizing what was happening. "Kell," She whispered, "Kellach, hey, wake up, you're safe!"

The tortured whimpers didn't subside, and Moyra tried to shake his shoulder. That was a mistake. Kellach lashed out, and only years of instincts kept Moyra from catching a fist to the face. "St. Cuthbert," Moyra yelped.

The loud exclamation seemed to jar the sleeping boy, and his eyes snapped open. He moved faster than Moyra had ever seen him move before he disappeared and grabbed both her wrists in a strong, trembling grasp. "Gods," He whispered, and stared in Moyra's direction. "Where am I, what's going on?"

"Kellach, you're home, you're safe," Moyra winced at the tight hold he had on her. "It's me, Moyra!"

"Moyra…" Kellach seemed to have a moment of difficulty remembering who she was, before awareness seeped back into his sightless eyes. "Oh… oh, I made it home, I'm… home…" He whispered to himself. "You and Driskoll…"

"I'm here Kell," The commotion must have awoken Driskoll. He yawned, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "You're safe, promise."

Kellach shakily released Moyra's wrists, moving to touch his eyes in what Moyra was pretty sure was a subconscious action. "Oh…" he swore quietly, and when he moved his hands from his eyes, Moyra could see moonlight reflecting off of eyes that were suddenly shining. "Gods, I…" He drew back, pushing himself against the headboard of the bed. "I'm so sorry I woke you guys."

"Hey, it's no big deal," Moyra assured him. "Do you need anything? How can we help?" She and Driskoll looked anxiously at each other, neither of them knowing exactly what to do.

"I'm gonna… I'm gonna get myself some water…" He murmured to himself, starting to push himself up.

"I'll get it," Driskoll asserted quickly, standing up from his bed.

"No!" Kellach surprised the other two knights with the vehemence in his words. "No! I mean…" He lowered his voice. "I can get it myself."

"Are you sure?" Moyra asked, as Kellach tried to stand.

Getting to his feet, Kellach swayed for a moment. "No," He insisted, feeling his way along the bed to the door. "I can do this on my own. I don't need-" His words were cut off his foot caught on something. He swore loudly as he stumbled, managing catch himself on the wall. He swore again as he steadied himself.

"My boots," Moyra swore, "Kellach, I'm so sorry."

"I'm gonna go get the water," Driskoll said quickly and exited the room.

A moment passed with Kellach breathing heavily, fists clenching and unclenching in his frustrations.

"Kellach, what did you…"

"Don't ask me about it Moyra, please?" Kellach whispered, "Just… just please let this go."

"But…"

"Please…" He finally turned his face towards her, and it broke her heart to see that he didn't really meet her eyes. "I can't talk about it. Please… just let it go."

Moyra stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder, but she didn't miss the slight flinch that passed through his body at the contact. "I'm sorry," She whispered. Kellach didn't reply, just let her lead him back to bed.

When Driskoll came back with the water, Kellach just nodded his thanks and curled back up in bed, away from the other two, as far towards the outer edge as he could fit. Not knowing what else to do, the two of them tried to go to sleep as well, but Moyra doubted either of them slept well the rest of the night.

* * *

Kellach refused to come down for breakfast the next morning. "I'll eat later," He insisted. "I don't need everyone staring at me trying to eat."

"Kellach, why don't you just tell Mom and Dad?" Driskoll asked, "then you won't have to stress as much."

"No!" Kellach snapped, pressing his fingers hard into his eyes where he sat on the edge of the bed. "I've made it on my own for this long, I don't need anyone's help."

"Kellach, stop being so stone-headed," Moyra snapped. "You need help. You asked for ours last night but there's only so much we can do." Kellach stared stonily ahead, not even bothering to try to look like he was looking at his friends. "You almost killed yourself tripping over my boots last night!"

"St. Cuthbert, stop trying to coddle me!" Kellach yelled, standing suddenly. "Nobody asked you for your opinion so just stop, Moyra!" The look in his eyes was furious, even as he was unable to meet either of their eyes directly.

Then, there was a soft knock on the door, breaking the tension. "Breakfast is ready if you kids want to come down." Jourdain's voice was soft, but she sounded as though she had heard the yelling, as there was caution in her tone.

"I don't feel well," Kellach called back, shrinking back into bed. "I'll eat later."

Moyra cast a glare in Kellach's direction. "Fine," She snapped, "Just stay there and feel sorry for yourself." She threw the door open, surprising Jourdain, who stepped back in alarm. "Come on Driskoll, _I'm_ hungry." And they closed the door on Kellach's angry face.

As they started down the stair, Jourdain turned to them. "Is he okay?" She asked quietly. "He's been off since he got home."

Before Driskoll could try to play peacemaker, Moyra growled, "No, he's not. The stupid idiot is trying to take care of everything himself like always."

Jourdain turned away, worry on her face. "I wish I knew more of what he went through so I could help him." She mused sadly. The knights were silent. Jourdain and Torin knew Kellach had been abducted and interrogated, but neither of them knew the true extent of the damage or abuse. Kellach had brilliantly downplayed it. Too well.

Moyra wanted to say something, wanted to tell Jourdain everything. There had to be some spell that they could employ, something to make it easier for Kellach to just function day to day. One look from Driskoll reminded her not to betray Kellach's trust however, and Moyra just seethed to herself.

"Did he tell you two anything else last night?" Torin asked, already seated at the table. The captain's posture was stiff, "anything that would help us find the people who attacked him?"

"No," Driskoll replied honestly as they all sat down. "Just that they were trying to get information about the Knights and Zendric." Jourdain picked up her silverware and started eating, but she seemed to be thinking.

"There could be any number of organizations that would want information about the Knights," She offered, "But those would be from decades ago. They disappeared from current events before you kids were born." She paused, chewing and thinking.

"If any of those organizations are active again we need to know," Torin asserted, "They could threaten Promise, and the new hope we've built here." He gripped his utensils tightly, "And they will never get to my sons again."

* * *

Driskoll was alone in the house when he finally heard movement from upstairs. The door creaked open, and Kellach's face peaked out the doorway. "Driskoll?" He called cautiously, "Moyra?"

"It's just me," Driskoll confirmed. Moyra had gone home to let her parents know what was going on. Driskoll didn't doubt that she would be back later though.

Kellach seemed to relax a little bit, but only minutely in the tension in his shoulders. Driskoll watched as his hand landed hesitantly on the banister and he carefully made his way downstairs. Driskoll set his sword and whetstone down carefully where Kellach would not have a chance to wander into them before he darted over to grab his brother's shoulder before he tripped on something. Kellach flinched slightly, seeming not to expect the contact. "I'm fine," He protested weakly, but didn't fight too much as Driskoll lead him to a chair at the table.

"You hungry?" Driskoll asked, already grabbing food.

"I guess," Kellach shrugged noncommittally.

Driskoll frowned, but brought over some leftovers from breakfast, some buns with jam on them. He put one close to Kellach's hand, watching as his brother hesitantly wrapped a hand around his before bringing it to his mouth. In the light of midmorning, Driskoll could see how much Kellach's sleeping clothes hung off of him. His brother had lost a significant amount of weight. He grabbed the rest of the leftovers, some meat included, and set it within Kellach's grasp. "Thanks Mom," Kellach said jokingly, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

Driskoll quickly filled Kellach in on their conversation from this morning. "So it wouldn't surprise me if Mom and Dad have questions to ask you tonight," He said. "They seemed pretty concerned about this new threat."

"I didn't tell them anything," Kellach growled, setting the food he had been about to eat down. "What more do they need to know?"

"I don't know Kell," Driskoll shrugged, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "Maybe see-, um, figure out if they can identify who t- who uh, did everything?"

Kellach's face had gone impassive. "See if they can figure out who tortured me?" He threw the word out so lightly, but Driskoll flinched at the sound of it.

"Um… yeah."

Kellach started rubbing at his wrists, a new subconscious habit Driskoll noticed his brother had picked up. Maybe he was feeling the ghost of the shackles that had bound him for a month. There were certainly enough scars crossing the skin of his wrists.

Driskoll paused, before he asked, "Do you… do you remember their faces?"

Kellach's whole body shuddered. Driskoll had a moment to feel awful for asking the question before Kellach responded quietly, "I think so. Some better than others." A pause. "One…the last one… in particular."

"There were multiple?" Driskoll asked?

Kellach nodded, his mind obviously far away. Driskoll took a moment to digest this new information, noticing that Kellach's rubbing had grown gradually more agitated. His whole body seemed tense.

"Kellach…"

"If you're right," Kellach cut him off, "Mom and Dad are going to interrogate me later, and I only want to go through this once."

Driskoll clenched his jaw, but nodded his assent. "Yeah, I can wait." He found his eyes drawn to Kellach's hands, still compulsively gripping and releasing his wrists. "Kell, your wrists…"

Kellach halted his nervous habit almost immediately. "Sorry." With some effort it seemed, he quieted his hands, but Driskoll could see the red angry skin left behind. There was another moment of tense quiet, before Kellach asked quietly, "It's for the good of the order right? That I tell them?"

It was a rare moment of vulnerability for his brother, and Driskoll knew better than to say something about it. "For the good of Promise too," He said, "This organization could come after everyone here."

Kellach nodded, his face turned away. "I know," He said, lightly rubbing his wrists again, "But I really don't want to talk about it. It's so painful to remember it." Driskoll's heart broke for his brother. Tonight, he was going to have to listen to his brother relive what was probably the most traumatic experience of his life.

He just hoped that the information his parents gleaned would be worth the pain it caused his brother.

* * *

Heads up, there will be some pretty graphic descriptions of torture in the next chapter as we discover what happened to Kellach in the month that he was held hostage and what that means for the Knights and Promise.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Heads up, graphic descriptions of torture in this chapter.

* * *

Kellach sat on the couch next to Jourdain when the time came. Moyra was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest at Kellach's feet. Driskoll sat in the armchair next to the couch while Torin had positioned himself in the armchair across from his wife and son, back to the front door. The whole room was filled with a kind of tension, and most of it seemed to be radiating off of the blond boy who was the center of attention.

"So… where do I start?" He asked blankly, rubbing his wrists again. He seemed to be trying to distance himself from the real world in preparation for the terror he was about to relive. Driskoll just hoped that they would be able to pull him back after his parents were done.

Torin seemed the most composed of everyone seated in the room, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when he was the one who spoke first. Having conversations like this was in his job description, but Driskoll could hear the impact of the victim being his son in the tremor of his first few words. "The night of the party. You disappeared. What happened?"

Kellach fidgeted with his wrists for a moment before he spoke. "I… I don't exactly remember," He answered. "I stepped out to get some fresh air. It gets kind of fuzzy after that.

"When I came to I was… I was shackled to the ground by my wrists, my hands behind my back. I wasn't gagged… yet. I was in some sort of cell and a guy walked in. He never gave me his name. He was shorter, about as tall as I was then. Short dark hair, dark eyes, looked like he hadn't shaved in a while." Torin and Jourdain exchanged glances, and Moyra wondered if that description meant anything to them.

"He tried the nice guy routine on me, and asked about the state of the knights, and where Zendric was. I didn't tell him anything. He told me that if I didn't tell him what he wanted to know, he'd get the information out of me somehow. I told him he wouldn't." Kellach seemed to shrink in on himself. "He never did, but things got really unpleasant after that…"

 _Kellach grimaced as the iron shackles bit into his wrists. He knew they were solid and saw no use in trying to fight his way out of them. Wearing nothing but pants, Kellach didn't even have a chance of magicking his way out of this situation. He was stuck here for the time being._

 _He pushed himself to his knees, the most upright he could get given the short chain on the shackles around his wrists. His shoulders were already protesting the position that they were being forced into. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious or what time it was. But something told him he was about to not care._

 _Kellach shivered, waiting for his original guest to make good on his threat, and his promise came all too soon. A huge man, probably half orc by the look on his ugly face, entered the room and Kellach felt his stomach plummet. But he tried to act brave. "You here to make me talk?"_

 _"Oh no sweet boy," the small man said, "He's here as backup. You see, you're quite a high value prisoner to us. He's here to make sure you don't escape and to help us move you if need be."_

 _"So who's here to make me talk?" Kellach tried to put as much bravado in his voice as possible._

 _The man smiled a sick smile, and Kellach really felt a punch of fear in his stomach. "I am the one who has that particular pleasure, but first…" He drew several pieces of fabric out of his pocket. "I want to listen to you beg me to stop through a gag…"_

It was here that Kellach paused. The room was silent, and the tension felt palpable. "He uh… he made good on his promise," Kellach said quietly. And then Driskoll saw Kellach go to remove his shirt.

Jourdain's hand went to her mouth. Torin's jaw and fists clenched. Horror, sympathy and anger were present in both their eyes as Kellach revealed his menagerie of scars. "Lashes, strategic cutting, hot irons, broken and crushed bones, and alcohol and salt to remind me they were there." He abbreviated the weeks of torture in a single sentence. Driskoll knew his brother had retreated into himself in order to get through this retelling, but it was terrifying to hear him state all of this information so blankly and emotionlessly.

"He was right again," Kellach continued, "I screamed. I begged him to stop, to please let me go." Hands twisting on his wrists were the only sign of the agitation and pain that lurked beneath his blank exterior. "But through it all, I never told him what he really wanted. That's when he… that's when she almost broke me…"

 _Everything hurt. The overwhelming cacophony of pain made it hard for Kellach to focus on any one pain in particular. By that same token, it made it hard for Kellach to focus on anything. He was on the edge he knew so well, the edge of wanting to, needing to pass out, but not being able to. A new voice was the first thing that finally jarred him into a state of semi consciousness._

 _"This is him?" A female voice asked._

 _"Yes," The voice of the man Kellach knew so well seemed for the first time intimidated by the person he was talking to, and that would have worried Kellach more had his mental state not been teetering on unconsciousness._

 _"He's just a boy," The voice was dismissive._

 _"He is stronger than he looks," The man said desperately, "He has been able to withstand everything I have thrown at him."_

 _"He had better for you to have bothered me," The female snapped, and then Kellach's chin was grabbed and his head was lifted for better inspection._

 _Through the pain, Kellach forced his eyes open to take in his new assaulter. A jagged scar ran from the right of her forehead to the left of her jaw, having taken out her left eye. An ice blue eye met his, and Kellach noticed pointed ears like Zendric's had been. A half elf? They weren't very common at all._

 _"Hello Kellach," The woman greeted him. "How are you doing?"_

 _Kellach mustered up his strength. "I've been better," He managed, and was proud to see the borderline impressed look in her eyes._

 _"My associate was correct," She mused, "You do not seem to be a boy easily broken."_

 _Kellach nodded, trying to brace himself for what was to come. He couldn't imagine what would be worse than what he had already endured._

 _His answer came when the half elf began to pull what Kellach recognized as spell components out of her robe. His heart sank deep into his chest. There was no way this could be good._

 _The first feeling that something was wrong came from a tingling sensation at the center of his skull. The feeling increased to a steady buzzing, but it wasn't painful yet, and Kellach didn't know what this was supposed to be. Until the woman came forward and placed her hands on his temples._

 _Kellach didn't know how to describe the feeling the assaulted him next except that it was wrong. He could feel someone else in his head. Someone else was in his head. "No!" He yelled, yanking his wrists against the cuffs that bound them._

 _"Ever had someone inside of your head?" The woman asked him, but the words didn't come from her mouth. They rang inside Kellach's head at a volume that made him yell in pain. "I'm going to guess that you haven't by your reaction."_

 _"Get out of my head!" Kellach yelled through clenched teeth. It felt so wrong to have her in there. So violating. Kellach could feel as she began to poke at different parts of his mind, searching for information._

 _He panicked. Zendric had never taught him what to do against mental assaults. Jourdain had barely mentioned it was possible, let alone what to do to protect information in the case of one. He threw his whole conscience into thinking about anything else, anything but what he knew she was looking for. He drew up a memory of Jourdain putting him to bed as a child after a nightmare, singing softly to him as she stroked his hair back from his forehead._

 _"Cute, but not what I'm looking for," The woman quipped, and what felt like multiple serrated blades ripped through the memory. The pain was intense, but not as devastating as the memory slowly fading away, until Kellach could not recall what he had been thinking about._

 _"What… what did you just do?" Kellach cried, his mental self trying to pick itself up from the little ball it had crawled into to escape the onslaught._

 _"Keep on throwing those cute little memories at me," The woman crowed, "But be careful, because I can destroy those memories too!" Kellach tried to throw his consciousness against the overpowering one in his head, but searing pain just ripped through his skull as he tried._

 _They went through this cycle a few times. Kellach would throw up a memory as a shield, only to have it ripped through and destroyed by the half-elf spell caster. He tried to keep the memories ones that he would not regret losing, but as the pressure to pick faster grew, Kellach began to stumble in his defense._

 _"Come on Kellach, you seem like such a smart boy. Please don't make me turn you into little shell of yourself." Her voice seemed almost comforting after the pain, but Kellach mustered up his strength again._

 _"You won't find my friends," He snapped weakly, and tried one last tactic: using himself as the shield. He gathered all of his memories behind his consciousness, and stood up to the evil bearing down on his mind._

 _"Cute," She commented, and ripped into him with all she had._

 _The pain was excruciating, so much worse than anything physical he had endured simply due to the nature of it. There was no respite or fading as his body accommodated to the pain, only unending agony. He should have passed out from this, why wasn't he passing out? He would give anything just to get away from the tortured ribbons of flayed nerves she was reducing his mind to…_

 _And then suddenly, he was. There was no pain, no ever present agony, but there wasn't… anything. He hadn't passed out, he knew that. He was no stranger to passing out from pain at this point, so he knew this wasn't that. His whole consciousness felt tight, curled so tightly in on itself that there seemed to be nothing else. He wasn't receiving anything from the outside world either. No sight, no sound, no pain at all. Just Kellach, alone with his thoughts in the darkness of his mind._

 _It should have felt more wrong, he decided after some time. It should have felt more disturbing that he could not see, more disturbing that he could hear nothing, and especially disturbing that the ever present pain that had been with him for so long was now just a memory. But in his present state, he could not bring himself to care._

 _Kellach didn't know how long he floated, just a presence in a sea of black. It could have been seconds, and it could have been days. He did know that eventually he started to feel something tickle on the edge of the darkness._

 _Having not felt anything in quite a while, Kellach's interest was immediately piqued by the sensation. What was that? He focused on it, and the tickle grew to a mild irritancy, and then a burning, and then-_

 _Pain._

 _Agony slammed into his consciousness again like being hit by a horse. He was so confused, what had happened? Just a second ago everything had been peaceful. He tried to retreat again, back into the abyss he had happily been floating in, but his mind wouldn't let him return. He was floating up to the waking world, whether he liked it or not._

 _Along with the pain, his other senses slowly trickled back. Flicking flames crackled in his ears, and light began to poke at his closed lids, seeming to want to be let in. He cracked his eyes open, realizing he was on the ground._

 _Rough gravel dug into the open wounds on his chest, and the position sent his broken ribs and forearm into splintering agony. Kellach screamed from deep in his chest as all the pain assaulted him at once now that he was back in the real world. His body tried to convulse in on itself, aggravating his other injuries until his whole mind was just a maelstrom of pain._

 _Eventually, his awareness returned as the lack of new agony allowed him to ever so slightly adjust to the sensations wracking his body. With that return came the knowledge that he was, for the first time since his capture, not restrained. There were iron manacles on his wrists and ankles, but they were for the first time not attached to anything._

 _This was probably the only chance he was going to get._

 _He forced his injured body into a semi upright position, having to pause a moment at the resurgence of pain before he looked around for any possible means of escape._

 _It was then he saw a window. It was covered in glass, but was definitely large enough for him to fit through._

 _When he finally reached the window and ignored the pain in his legs to get himself up enough to see through it, he could see why they had not bothered to reinforce it. He was high up in a tower, high enough that no sane person would try to jump and expect to live._

 _But Kellach wasn't sure he could count himself as sane anymore. "If I jump and die, then they don't find out about my friends," He murmured to himself, curled up into a ball on the ground. "But if I jump and live then…" Escape. Freedom._

 _Either way, he decided firmly that he would rather die than endure that mental violation again. And if he were completely honest with himself, he would almost rather die than have to live with the memories of what he had endured here…_

"… So I used the manacle to break the glass and I forced myself through," Kellach summarized, "I guess I must have gone into that dark mental space again after I fell, but deeper somehow, because I remember being there for a bit. When I woke up for good I didn't know how long I had been out…"

His hands twitched in Moyra's. She had been forced to grab them not too far through the story as he had started to rub his wrists raw.

"The cleric gave me the rundown on my injuries when I finally came to and was coherent enough to understand him," Kellach continued, no emotion in his voice. Moyra braced herself, and could sense the people around her doing the same. "Both legs were broken at the shin until the bone poked out, kneecaps were cracked, pelvis had multiple fractures, internal bleeding, ribs were broken on both sides, both forearms and upper arms had been broken in half to prevent spell casting, fingers and toes shattered and I was missing all my nails because they'd pulled them out. I had burns and lacerations across my chest and back and face, and anywhere with an open wound had had salt rubbed into it and alcohol poured over it and…" Kellach cut off.

Moyra struggled not to crush his poor hands in a death grip as she wondered if he would now disclose his blindness to his parents.

"And…" Kellach trailed off, seeming unable to continue.

Moyra thought it might have been for the better. She wasn't sure how much more the people assembled could take. The room was silent. Jourdain had covered her face while she listened, but not before tears had streaked down her face. Torin looked like he needed to punch something- anything. His whole body was taught with tension and his knuckles were white. Driskoll looked lost, caught between mimicking his father's reaction to want to punch something and also wanting to curl into a ball and cry.

Moyra knew the only reason she was able to stay still was her grip on Kellach's hands, his poor hands that she now knew had been through so much, which was grounding her and reminding her that he was here now. Broken as he had been he was here now, safe.

"Mentally, I was a complete wreck," Kellach finally continued. "I wasn't functional for months after I was free, and even now…" Moyra remembered the nightmare from last night. What had he been reliving just then?

"Eventually I made it home," Kellach said quickly, "And now I'm here." He shut his mouth then, sightless eyes directed vaguely at Moyra's hands holding his own, the hands twitching as though they longed to rub his wrists.

There was silence, as the assembled people seemed to realize that Kellach was not going to talk any more. Moyra tried to meet Kellach's eyes to read what he was thinking, but his eyes were as blank as his tone. Moyra wasn't even sure he was mentally all there right now.

The screech of heavy furniture jarred everyone but Kellach. They all turned to see that Torin had stood up. "We will… reconvene in the morning." He said shortly, and walked quickly off to his room. Jourdain looked torn between wanting to stay and help her son and going after her husband to give them both time to grieve for Kellach's pain.

"We've got him Jourdain," Moyra said quietly, squeezing Kellach's hands despite the lack of response from the boy. "Go talk to Torin. He doesn't do emotions well."

Jourdain nodded, seeming to almost flee the room after her husband.

Moyra looked over to Driskoll, who had curled in on himself in the armchair.

"Driskoll, you…"

"I… I need a moment," Driskoll had hot, angry tears running down his face.

Moyra closed her eyes, trying to internalize everything that had happened to their friend. It was worse, so much worse hearing it all put out there. Knowing exactly what laid behind the scars, nightmares, and haunted look that she could remember seeing on her own face not too long ago. He had really been through Hell.

"Moyra?" Kellach's voice startled them both. His voice was rough, and he gripped her hands tightly. "I need…" He seemed to struggle with words.

"Water?" Moyra tried, "A blanket?"

Kellach shook his head. "I need… I need to know…" He paused, seeming to try to look at where he thought her eyes were, "I need to know you guys are real."

"What do you mean…?" Moyra's question trailed off as he freed a hand from hers and falteringly reached out towards her face. Moyra was caught off guard for a moment, but haltingly learned forward to allow Kellach's hand to contact her forehead. He froze for a moment, not seeming to know what to do with the contact now that he had it. "Driskoll!" Moyra hissed, beckoning the boy over.

Kellach's other hand reached out once he heard Driskoll settle at his feet as well. Driskoll's face was perplexed as he guided Kellach's hand to it. Kellach paused once he had contact with both of them, before his fingers started sliding down their faces.

"You're crying," He said quietly as he encountered the wetness on both their cheeks. Moyra and Driskoll only nodded to his comment.

"You're real," He whispered, "You're real and I'm really here."

"You're home and safe," Driskoll managed through his tears, "You're not with those horrible people anymore."

Kellach's face was still turned downwards. "I'm never sure," He murmured, "With the blindness, I can't just see it. It sounds right, and smells right, but I still can't see it."

"Then feel that we're here and we're real," Moyra said, touching the hand on her cheek. "We're real Kellach. You're safe." She leaned forward, shifting her weight so that she could slither onto the couch between Kellach and the arm of the sofa and wrap her arms around him. "You're safe."

Driskoll moved up next to Kellach and slung an arm over his shoulder. "We're here for you Kell," He promised. "No one's gonna get to you again."

They cuddled in silence for a moment, before a choked noise came from Kellach. Moyra and Driskoll both looked up in alarm only to see tears beginning to stream down Kellach's face. He hung his head forward as the sobs started to come, and Moyra pulled his head against her chest.

"We've got you Kellach. Promise."

* * *

Let me know what you guys think!


	4. Chapter 4

Emotional exhaustion took Kellach to bed fairly quickly after he broke down in the arms of the other knights. Moyra and Driskoll retreated out to the sofa again after he had fallen asleep to give him some space, as they didn't want to wake him with their conversations.

"I can't believe he went through all that." Driskoll broke the silence between them. "I knew it was bad from the scars, but I didn't know it was that bad…"

Moyra hummed her agreement. The two were cuddled up on the couch, Driskoll's arm around Moyra's shoulders. Had it been anyone else, the gesture might have been romantic, but between the two of them it just spoke of the deep trust and friendship between the two.

Driskoll had always kind of thought of Moyra as Kellach's girl anyway.

"There's no way he's handling this well," Moyra mused quietly. "He's as emotionally constipated as your dad."

Driskoll nodded. "Neither did you, at first," He pointed out, loathe to bring _that_ up again.

Moyra stiffened, but tried to relax when Driskoll rubbed her shoulder. "No, I didn't," She admitted. "But you more than anyone know what it did to me."

"Yeah," Driskoll agreed, sighed as he tried to wipe away those memories.

There was a moment of comfortable silence.

"He'll never come to me of his own accord," Moyra pulled a knee up to her chest.

"I can… push him towards you," Driskoll offered, looking his friend in the eyes, "If… you feel comfortable talking about it."

"You know I'll never be comfortable talking about it," Moyra said sadly, and snuggled more into Driskoll's embrace. The two watched the fire as Moyra continued, "But… I do think it will help him to feel less alone…"

 _"He's been in and out for a while," A voice roused Kellach from a dark, dreamless sleep. He barely recognized this functional space. It had been so dark and peaceful for so long…_

 _"Still no idea what happened to him?" Another voice asked._

 _"He was tortured within an inch of his life, that's for certain," The first voice continued. "Poor boy."_

 _Were they talking about him? Where was he? As he started rejoining the waking world it suddenly hit him how dark it was, and how sore his whole body, especially his head was. He groaned at the sudden realization of pain, and the voices hushed._

 _He heard footsteps approach, and then there was a hand on his chest. "You back with me boy?" The first voice asked._

 _Kellach wasn't sure what the man meant. "'urt," He finally managed to mumble, "Wha…"_

 _Kellach heard movement, and guessed the man must have knelt. Why didn't he just turn the light on? It was pitch black in here. "You're in a temple," The man filled him in. "My name is Gorges, I'm the cleric who found you and healed your wounds. You've been here for about two months."_

 _Kellach moaned, turning his head slightly as he tried to wake up. "Wh-… dark…? Cn't see…"_

 _If he had been more with it, he might have sensed the atmosphere in the room shift. "What do you mean, dear boy?" Gorges voice was apprehensive, but Kellach didn't understand._

 _"'s… dark in 'ere," Kellach opened his eyes, trying to find the cleric's face. "Why no ligh's?"_

 _There was a pause. "It's full morning," The cleric said gently, a tone of horror dawning in his voice. "Can't you here the birds singing?"_

Kellach awoke, gasping for breath. He blinked his eyes a few times, taking a few moments to remember why he couldn't see. "Gods…" He whispered, sighing and burying his head in his hands.

The nightmares last night had been awful, his mind reminding him of the interrogation that had resulted in his crushed fingers, but this time they were no just crushed, but cut off while he slowly bled out. And then to top it off, the memory of when he discovered what had been the physical cost of his escape…

He anxiously started trailing his fingers around his wrists again, but determined hands gripped them. "Kell, you gotta stop that," Driskoll's voice came from in front of him and Kellach did everything in his power not to flinch in alarm.

Kellach pulled his hands away, hating the sensation of something around his wrists. "Don't touch them," He said quietly, but put his hands down at his sides to quell the urge to begin rubbing them.

"Sorry," Driskoll apologized. He paused, fidgeting a little. Kellach guessed that he was kneeling at his brother's feet. "You feeling up for breakfast?"

Kellach turned his head towards where he thought he remembered the door being, already hearing sounds in the kitchen downstairs. "I don't think I get a choice," He said quietly. He stood up, tracing his fingers along the bed until he could find his dresser to grab a pair of pants and a shirt.

"You gonna tell them?" Driskoll asked from behind him.

Kellach knew what he was talking about. "I told you, I don't want to," He snapped, rather harshly, but then shook his head. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

Kellach heard Driskoll sit back on his own bed. "Kell, right now I'm giving you a pass for anything you say after what we heard last night."

Kellach's lips tightened. Choosing not to comment, he asked instead, "Is Moyra here?"

There was a pause, and Kellach guessed Driskoll must have nodded, because his tone was awkward when he said, "Yeah, she spent the night on the couch last night."

"She didn't have to do that," Kellach mumbled, feeling for the front of his shirt and pulling it on.

"She wanted to," Driskoll clarified, hovering behind Kellach. He paused as Kellach struggled into pants he couldn't see, then he said, "You know, if you ever want to talk about… you know, how you're mentally handling this, she's probably the best one."

Kellach gave a short, sardonic laugh. "Why's that?"

"Hey," Driskoll's tone was slightly reproachful. "She just… she'd probably understand best what you've been through."

Kellach didn't try to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Why, was she kidnapped and tortured too?"

There was silence from Driskoll. Kellach paused, worried that he was missing something. He turned towards his brother, wishing desperately he could see the boy's face. "Driskoll, what aren't you telling me?"

Silence again.

"Driskoll, what happened to Moyra?"

Tension knotted in Kellach's chest with every second that passed that his brother did not respond.

Driskoll responded quietly and evenly, "You should talk to Moyra about that in private."

"By the Gods, Driskoll, what…?"

"Boys, breakfast is ready," Moyra's voice came with a knock to their door. Kellach tried to stare Driskoll down, but was sure the effect was ruined by the fact that he couldn't truly lock eyes with his brother.

"Ask her later," Driskoll said, gripping Kellach's shoulder before raising his voice as he pushed past his brother. "We're coming Moyra!"

Hearing the door open and the sounds from downstairs flood the room, Kellach was forced to let the matter drop.

Driskoll thought it was merciful that Kellach was spared the looks of pity from his parents as he came downstairs. Kellach could probably sense them though, as his shoulders tightened the further he went down the stairs.

"Come on slowpoke," Moyra called, walking swiftly over to Kellach and grabbing his arm. Driskoll was a caught a bit off guard at her actions, but as she proceeded to lead him to his chair, he realized what she was doing- helping him find his chair in a way his parents wouldn't suspect.

Kellach, too, seemed to have realized that she was trying to help, although Driskoll didn't miss the flinch as he was grabbed. Judging by the look on Moyra's face, she hadn't either.

Once they were all finally seated and eating (although Jourdain poked at her food and Kellach was trying to eat his food without appearing blind and the process was slow), Jourdain cleared her throat.

"So… Torin and I have had some discussion," She prefaced, and the mood at the table immediately tensed. Moyra set her food down to look at the two adults, and Driskoll tried to slow the rate of his eating a little. "We think we know who the people might have been."

She continued quickly, looking at her son as he froze and clenched his fists. "The human man I am not exactly sure of, but his association with the half elf leads us to believe he was once one of the leaders of the Order of the Shadows, an organization that formed in response to the success of the Knights of the Silver Dragon. It was some fifty years ago that the organization fell to pieces over conflicts in leadership, but is an order we have been conscious of."

"The half elf… I know much of," She closed her eyes, body posture mimicking her son's. Tight. On edge. "Lovenza, who was one of the founders of the Order, and an old enemy of Zendric's." She cast her eyes around the table. "Our guess is that they are attempting to rise to power again, and are looking for information of the organizations that lead to their downfall in the past." She seemed unable to continue on to the next part, looking at her tortured son in silence.

Torin spoke up. Casting a look at Kellach, he continued, "Believing this now, it is incredibly important that the information regarding our order stay secret. And knowing this," His voice broke. He took a moment, before whispering, "Kellach, we are so proud of you for standing up and not falling to these people. You may have just saved Promise."

"We are so, so proud of you," Jourdain whispered, putting a hand on her son's shoulder.

Kellach didn't even fake looking at his parents. He smiled faintly, but it never reached his eyes. He seemed to be fighting with something in his mind.

"Knowing this now, we need to prepare Promise," Torin carried on. "Our city may come under attack, especially as the Order was unable to get information out of Kellach." Driskoll could see his dad was already running through options in his head.

"They may try to get to you kids again," Jourdain said softly, and all of the younger knights tensed. "We need you all to be prepared at all times. Kellach, I can teach you some magic that might help if… if something happens. I have old spellbooks you can study, and-"

"Mom, Dad, I'm blind," Kellach suddenly interjected, pulling back into himself.

Driskoll's eyes were wide. That was not how he had expected his parents to find out. Moyra too looked shocked.

But that was nothing compared to the looks of complete lack of comprehension on his parents' faces, mixed with dawning horror.

"Kellach…"

"When I fell out of the tower I hit my head really hard and when I woke up with the cleric I was blind," Kellach grit his teeth. "He couldn't heal it, I've been living with it for about nine months now."

The younger knights were silent as Jourdain and Torin digested the information. "Why didn't you tell us right away?" Torin's jaw was tight.

"I wasn't comfortable," Kellach said shortly. "I heard how you guys reacted last night. I wasn't going to tell you, but if there's something I can do to be more functional in case a threat comes to Promise I want to do it." He looked down at his lap, where his nervous habit was picking up again. "I'd sooner die than go back to being their captive."

Had Kellach still been sighted, he and Torin would be having one of their father/son glaring matches, but as it was, Kellach only stared into space, and Torin knew that.

"I have to get to work," He snapped, and quickly left the table.

Jourdain sent a frustrated look after her husband before turning back to the kids. "I'll pull out my spellbooks," She said reassuringly. "I think we can find some things that will make life a little easier for you."

Torin didn't speak to Kellach when he got home from work that night. Jourdain assured them that he just didn't like feeling helpless to protect his sons, but still the animosity lingered.

However, Jourdain did find a couple of spells that could help Kellach.

"Gods this is weird," Kellach muttered as he walked around the room, narrowly avoiding the table as he sensed it at the last moment. Jourdain had cast a spell on him that allowed Kellach to sense objects that came within a two-foot radius of his person. It wasn't perfect, but at least he had stopped stumbling into furniture.

"You'll get used to it," Jourdain tried to smile, but Moyra could see that she was still adjusting to the idea of Kellach's blindness. "We'll keep working on that reading one." The one that would read books and writing aloud when cast. The problem with it was that Kellach would have to cast it on his own, and locating and using the right spell components while blind would be difficult.

"I think I'm done trying new spells for the night," Kellach sighed, sinking down on the couch.

Jourdain nodded, seeming to agree.

Driskoll trudged into the house from outside, looking exhausted. He had been sparing with Torin. "Mom, Dad's upset," He said. "That practice was horrible."

Jourdain sighed. "I'll talk to him," She promised.

Driskoll nodded and headed up to bed.

Jourdain looked at the two remaining knights. "Sleep well you two," She said, following Torin in when he went into their bedroom.

This left Moyra and Kellach alone together in the sitting room. Moyra was already curled up on the couch, but closed her eyes when Jourdain left the room. They sat on opposite sides of the couch. There was an awkward silence for a moment. Moyra wondered if Driskoll had told Kellach about their discussion last night.

Her question was answered when Kellach spoke. "So… Driskoll told me I should talk to you about… you know, what's going on in my head. Because you might understand?" His hands went to rub his wrists, but he paused, as though consciously trying to halt himself.

Moyra sighed and looked down. Driskoll had mentioned it. "What did he tell you?" She asked.

Kellach turned his head towards her. "Just that you could relate," He said. "Moyra…" He moved closer to her, close enough that she could see the trembling in his hands as he struggled not to resume his nervous habit. "Moyra, what happened to you?" He asked.

Moyra took Kellach's hands, sliding close enough to him that their legs touched. She lifted his right hand to touch her face. "So you can read my expression," She explained, but didn't let go of his hands.

"Moyra…"

"It's not something I like to talk about," She murmured, "I'm sure you can relate." Kellach's face was twisted in worry for his best friend, but he waited for her to continue, shifting his fingers on her face ever so slightly.

"You see," Moyra started, paused, then continued, "About eight months ago, everything was falling apart… You had been gone, and everyone was kinda calling off the search at that point. Driskoll and I weren't talking at the time. We discussed it later and at the time we were both blaming each other for your disappearance."

She took deep breath. "So, one night, not having anything else to do and wanting to help my mom, I offered to close the shop while she went home early…"

* * *

Uh oh. Not where I planned to cut this off so the next chapter is gonna be interesting.

Hope y'all enjoyed! If you did, please just leave a "Hey, I liked it," or a "You write good." I promise, these chapter come out much faster when there are reviews urging me on.


	5. Chapter 5

_It was getting dark out, and Moyra couldn't remember for the life of her why she had volunteered to close her mother's stall tonight. Something about being a responsible, grown daughter. Moyra swore under her breath as she stuffed the last of the supplies in a bag and started towards home._

 _Usually she and her mother walked home together, or left when it was not quite so late, but Moyra had not finished closing until much later than normal, and the night was rapidly approaching. The streets of Promise were relatively safe to walk at night, but that didn't normally stop Moyra from being on edge anyway. She didn't live in the best part of the city and hard earned instincts were not casually discarded. However, this night, her thoughts were elsewhere when she nearly collided with someone on the street._

 _"Hey watch where you're going!" She snapped, trying to duck around the figure when someone grabbed her shoulder. "Get off of me, what are you-?" Her words cut off as she slowly turned around, realizing she was surrounded._

 _Five men surrounded her, two larger and burly, the other three bigger than her, but less muscly. "Can I help you?" She asked tersely, holding the bag of supplies close to her chest. She tried to sound braver than she felt._

 _"You're Breddo and Royma's girl, right?" The guy directly in front of her asked._

 _She lifted her chin and didn't answer. "Let me go, right now." She growled._

 _"She's feisty," The one gripping her shoulder commented. He leaned down and brushed her hair aside to whisper in her ear, "I like 'em feisty." She flinched away._

 _"She's grown into an attractive girl," A skinny one commented, "Not that scrawny street rat we used to see around." Moyra shivered as she watched them all comb her body lasciviously. She had been quite proud of the body she was finally developing into, but now she wished her body hadn't developed the way it had._

 _"Let me go," She tried again, but there was more fear in her voice._

 _"Heard one of Torin's brats went missing," One of them commented._

 _"And you're not on speaking terms with this other one," Another picked up._

 _"Which means you're just another Broken Town girl no one cares about," the first guy smiled maliciously, before moving in on her._

"They…" Her voice broke, and Kellach felt tears begin to fall from her eyes. She took a deep breath to steady herself. "They raped me."

Kellach felt as though someone had stabbed him in the heart. "Moyra…" He breathed, moving his other hand up to cup her face.

"I'll uh… I'd spare you the exact details but… I guess you should know… they uh… they passed me around like I was some kind of toy," She whispered, her voice haunted, "And they all… sometimes more than one at a time…"

Kellach felt the knife in his heart twist. He focused on wiping away the tears he could not see and did his best to offer comfort.

"I wasn't supposed to live, I found that out later," Moyra continued quietly. "They were going to use me, and when they were done, they were going to kill me, and no one would have known who did it. The evidence would have died with me."

Kellach was trembling with something other than memories of his torture. Anger was coursing through him, strong and hot.

"Driskoll saved me," Moyra reassured him, putting a hand on his chest. She must have seen the barely controlled emotions under the surface of his skin. "They were… I was… quite loud, and Driskoll had been out for a walk when he heard me. He rushed over and the guys took off pretty fast. You would have been proud of him. He had his sword out and looked pretty scary."

"Don't tell him that," Kellach felt the ghost of a smile touch his lips. "He'll be insufferable."

He felt her smile under his fingertips. "He just sees it as doing what he had to for a friend." Her smile faded. "He got me back to your place, wrapped in his jacket because… well… there wasn't much left of my clothes and those that were left were covered in blood and…" She stopped, gripping his shirt in her fists.

"We made up that night. He felt awful, of course, blaming himself for not being there with me to protect me. I tried to tell him that it was my fault, I shouldn't have been walking the streets alone at night…"

"Moyra, it wasn't your fault…"

"I know," She cut him off. "I know that now. But at the time, all I could think about was what I could have done differently, how I could have stopped it from happening at all." Kellach nodded. He had had the same thoughts during his captivity, and still had thoughts about the same things now that he was free. He was starting to see why Driskoll had directed him to their friend.

Moyra lowered her hands from his chest to rest them on his leg. "Of course, afterwards, I was… to use your words… a total wreck. I was having nightmare every night, when I did sleep, and I was so jumpy and defensive and refused to go anywhere alone during the day." Her voice dropped in volume. "I couldn't get clean. I couldn't get the feeling of them in me and on me off, no matter how hard I scrubbed. I used to rub myself raw, just trying to feel clean again.

"I… Jourdain had made me a special tea to make sure that… that I didn't end up carrying one of those monsters'… but I kept feeling like they had taken a part of me, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it back… I felt different, I was different I…" Her voice trembled, but he felt her lift her face to look at him.

"I'm not telling you this so that you'll pity me, or to try to downplay what you went through at all, I'm not. I just… I want you to know that those feelings you're having of violation, lost of control of your own body and life, and feeling like you lost something in the mean time…" She ran fingers over the scars on his face. "You're not alone Kellach."

It took Kellach a moment to realize that there were angry tears in his eyes. "Those guys," He growled through clenched teeth, "My dad put them away, right? For a long time?"

He felt her nod. "With Driskoll and I as first hand witnesses, and a couple of other people who had seem them drag me into an alleyway, and they had a record of previous assaults. The proof was undeniable. But… once they knew they had lost, they started…" She flinched, more tears spilling down her face, "they started bragging about it, and all the things that they had made me do in front of everyone; my parents, your parents, people in town." She was trembling. "I just wanted to disappear."

Kellach didn't want to lose his way of seeing her expression, but he sacrificed the tactile cues in order to pull his friend into a tight hug. "Moyra, I'm so sorry. I wish I could have…" He didn't know what to say. He was starting to realize how his family must have felt the night before. How his father was feeling about learning of his blindness.

He felt her shrug. "You were dealing with your own stuff," She murmured in his ear. "I had an amazing support system here, once I chose to let them help me. You were on your own." He felt her fingers card comb through his hair. "It's probably why you're still so raw."

He could feel her waiting for him to say something, so he drew back out of the hug, wishing desperately again that he could see her face. They ended up resting their foreheads against each other's, listening to the other person breathe.

"When… when everything was happening to you…" He put his hands back on her face to try to read her expressions, "Did you…?" He didn't want to ask this, didn't want to confess to it, even after she had told him so much. "Did you ever wish you could just die?"

Moyra stilled, and he could feel her eyes on him. She took a moment, before she slowly responded, "There were times when I wanted to just disappear," She said quietly, "To not exist any more… but die?" She ran her fingers through the hair on the back of his neck, making him shiver as he waited for her answer. "I don't… I don't think so."

He felt his heart sink. No, of course she hadn't. Because only the weak wished for death.

"I did," Kellach admitted, hating himself for it. "Before I was going to jump out the window. Part of what made me able to make that jump, was the thought that… if I didn't make it… then everything would be over. All the pain, and the abuse… would just be over. And… I almost found myself hoping that I would die, because then I wouldn't have to live with the memories…" He chuckled wryly. "Ironic, isn't it? I hope for death, and instead I wake up blind and with enough bad memories to last a life time." He closed his eyes tightly, still smiling. "Gods, I'm so weak…"

Moyra gasped, before she gripped his chin tightly, almost painfully. His eyes shot open in alarm. "Moyra…"

"Now you listen to me, Kellach," Moyra snapped. "You are not, were not, and never will be weak. You were tortured for weeks, all along with the knowledge that if you just told your captors what they wanted to know, they would stop. Probably kill you, but they would have stopped. And you. Held. On." She punctuated each word with a jerk of his chin.

"Lesser men would have broken in days, maybe hours of what you went through, but you didn't." Her voice was intense. "You resisted them for four weeks, so much so that they had to call in a wizard to rip the answers out of your brain. And you still were able to protect us."

There were tears coming from her eyes again. "Kellach, you saved me, Driskoll, your parents and all of Promise by not breaking, and being strong to the last. You came home with scars but you came home. And you're here and making progress to come back to life." Her voice was breaking because of the intensity of her emotions.

"Don't you dare tell me that you're weak, Kellach. Because I don't believe one word of it." She was trembling. "You are so much more than you give yourself credit for," She whispered fiercely, her face inches from his so he could feel her breath on his mouth. "So I don't want to hear one more word of this weak bull-"

Kellach cut her off by pulling her face to his and kissing her like his life depended on it. Moyra stiffened, totally caught off guard by his actions. He drew back quickly, afraid he had done something wrong, but Moyra just asked, "Why did you…" Her voice was confused, but there was something else there he couldn't quite place without seeing her face.

Cursing his blindness again, he started to apologize before Moyra swooped in again, pushing him onto his back on the sofa and kissing him like her life depended on it.

Maybe it did.

Kellach thought his might.

Something happened the moment they kissed for the second time. Something wound up tight for so long released inside of Kellach and suddenly he couldn't get enough of her, touching her hair, her neck, her shoulders and back, mapping out every feature he had forgotten or not been around to know with vision. Her hands alternated between cupping his face, supporting herself, and pressing into his chest. He kissed down her neck and when he hit a particular spot, a mewl left her lips. "Gods, Kellach," She gasped, arching into him.

He was content to hover around her neck for a little while, seeing what noises he could get out of her. Eventually, her whimpers had hit a steady level, and she pushed him back. "St. Cuthbert, Gods, Kellach, I can't, too much," She panted, but he could hear the wonder and smile in her voice.

Kellach nodded, moving his hands to map out her face, that face that had been making those wonderful noises that made him want her, want everything, just want. He shifted his hips against her to try to get some relief for himself when Moyra's whole body stiffened, went rigid as a board.

Attuned as he was to touch now he noticed it instantly. "Moyra…? You okay?"

He moved a hand up to her face and felt that her face was tight and her eyes were closed tightly. "Moyra?" He asked, genuinely worried.

"No, Kellach, I'm… I'm fine…" She whispered tightly, shifting her weight off of him. "I just forgot you have a… Um… I forgot…"

Kellach was confused for a moment, before blood rushed into his face. "Oh, my… Sorry, I just, I mean, we were kissing and…" Moyra kissed him gently, but there was still tension in her movements.

"It's okay," She assured him, "You didn't do anything, it's just… me."

Kellach felt like he was missing something. Albeit blood wasn't exactly centered in his brain right now but he knew he was missing something obvious.

"They… um… had them too," Was all Moyra had to say before it clicked.

They. The men who had raped her. Gods, what was wrong with him? She had just told him about everything and he had to go and…

"Kellach, stop," Moyra put a hand on his face. "It's okay. We'll work through it. I just…" She took a breath. "I just need time."

Kellach nodded. "I can do that." He promised.

She kissed him gently again, and the two just cuddled for a few moment in the aftermath of what had just happened. He heard Moyra yawn, before she reluctantly said, "You should probably get to sleep."

"Yeah…" Kellach agreed halfheartedly, starting to feel the exhaustion of the day hit him. He started to get up, but something felt wrong about just leaving her down here, especially after what she had just told him. "Come to bed with me?" He asked, extending his hand in her general direction.

Moyra paused. "You sure?" She asked apprehensively. "What about Driskoll and your parents?"

Kellach nodded. "Please? For me?"

He heard her sigh, but it wasn't resigned. It was her agreeing to something she had wanted to do and could find no argument against. "Okay," She whispered, and they traveled up to the bedroom together.

.

.

.

 _"Our scouts have reported that the boy has returned to Promise."_

 _"I see…" A malicious feminine smile. "Well then, maybe it's time to tie up some loose ends and visit an old friend…"_

* * *

Not sure when you'll see another update. The plot bunnies have run their course for this story at the moment. Let's just call this a temporary ending with Kellach home and safe, Kellach and Moyra finally having addressed their feelings for each other, and everyone on the mend.

That bit at the end? Well, I couldn't completely end it could I?

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you enjoyed!

Please let me know what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

Things started going better after that.

At least, the best they had been before the whole nightmarish ordeal occurred. Kellach's nightmare's persisted, but the new presence sharing his bed helped to calm the night terrors much faster. The small of Moyra's hair, her soft body pressed against his when everything in his nightmare had been hard and cold brought him to the present, usually crying against her chest, much more rapidly.

Kellach also became privy to some of Moyra's night terrors. That was the harder switch for them to make, because as often as his presence calmed her mid terror, it also set off a whole new panic attack. It hurt Kellach every time he had to surrender the trembling girl to Driskoll to calm down, or every time she would be calming down, and then feel his body pressed against hers, and start up again.

He hated the men who had done this to his girl, hated that sometimes when he snuggled up to her, she'd tense and panic for a moment, hated that their kisses could only get so heated before something about his male anatomy would set her off, one time escalating into a full blown panic attack.

"I'm sorry," She would apologize through tears, and Kellach would stroke her hair and swear to her that it was okay, and that they would just take their time and make it work.

Their parents weren't thrilled about the two sharing a bed at first, Royma more so than Jourdain. Royma forced Moyra to come home for one night before returning with her daughter the next morning, asking if the arrangement really did help the two sleep.

Kellach definitely thought it did. In the week since he had started sharing a bed with Moyra, he had gotten the best sleep he had had since before his capture. The increased physical contact with Kellach seemed to be helping Moyra deal with her ordeal as well.

With the help of Jourdain's spell, Kellach was slowly regaining his independence. They discussed a sorting system that would make it easier for Kellach to find things in the house, and when Driskoll suggested extending it to Kellach's spell components so maybe he could continue his training.

It was an idea that actually started to work and be feasible. He was able to regain his some of his basic casting abilities, and his confidence at that. Moyra even commented on it during a walk through town one afternoon.

"It's nice to have you back," He could hear the smile in her voice. "I mean," she clarified, "Not just you physically, although that's amazing, but your personality is starting to come back too."

But as much progress as he was making, he and Jourdain had yet to talk about spells that could be used to launch a mental attack on someone. Kellach still couldn't bring himself to think about it, as one time Jourdain had brought it up pushed Kellach back into his mind, reliving his mental abuse until Driskoll, Moyra and Jourdain could pull him out of it.

"At some point," He promised, "Just… I can't right now."

Things with Torin were still rocky. The man left early for work and got home much too late for any conversation. Any exchanges he had with his son were brief and emotionless. "He'll come around," Jourdain assured him, but the tone of her voice told him that she really had no idea.

"Is… Is he mad that I lied to him?" Kellach asked Driskoll one night.

Driskoll shook his head, "I doubt it, but with Dad sometimes you never know. I feel like he just doesn't know how to handle this. He's never been here for any of your… flashbacks."

Kellach sighed, closing his eyes. "Did I do something wrong? I mean… he said he was proud of me before…"

"Kell," Driskoll's tone was sad when he gripped his brother's shoulder. It'll be okay. He'll come around."

It was an odd occasion when Kellach was left alone. He didn't like it, although he'd never admit it, and his family and Moyra didn't like leaving him to himself for too long. He had been lucky in the past in that he wasn't left home alone long, and when he was, he was usually able to avoid anything that would trigger a flashback.

But of course, it finally happened one afternoon. Moyra was helping her mother at the shop, Driskoll was shadowing member of the watch, and Jourdain and Torin were working, leaving him home alone for a few hours.

After practicing spells for a few hours, and finally exhausting the ones he knew, he decided to take a break. He had just been going to get himself a cup of water, when he knocked something loose in the cupboard. Something heavy fell on his fingers and then fell to shatter on the ground.

Kellach froze.

 _SLAMCRUNCH_

A phantom pain caused him to cry out and clutch his fingers to his chest. He backpedaled rapidly, and his boots impacted the remains of the object on the ground.

CRUNCH

 _CRUNCH_

 _"Are you ready to talk now?" The man's leering tone, the bite of the leather restraints into his wrists, ankles and the choking sensation that arose from the leather strap trapping his neck to the back of the chair he sat in._

 _Not exactly sure how, Kellach had mustered some kind of strength by this point, glaring at his assailant through bloodshot eyes sunken deep into his face. He didn't respond verbally, but the defiant look in his eyes seemed to be answer enough._

 _The man smirked. "The fingers are a very valuable asset to a spell caster such as yourself. Are you sure you're willing to sacrifice them?"_

 _Through a throat dry and torn from screaming, Kellach managed, "Let me go. I'm not going to tell you anything." The words came out as more of a plea than the defiant tone he had intended._

 _The man grabbed his hair, pulling the strap around his neck tighter. Kellach choked and struggled to pull back, but the grip on his hair was too strong. "We'll see how you feel in a few minutes."_

 _And then the hammer descended on his finger._

 _CRUNCH._

"Gods, please!" Kellach coiled on himself, hands pulled close to his chest. "Stop!"

 _"Stop, please!" Kellach screamed, not able to look at the crushed remains of his right hand. "Gods!"_

 _"Are you ready to talk?" His tormenter asked, grinding the hammer into the remains of his thumb, wrenching another drawn out scream from Kellach's throat. This had been the routine since the first crushed finger. The man would crush a bit of the bone, and then give Kellach an out. And how badly he wanted to take it..._

 _"No, no, no, no, please!" Kellach sobbed, and the hammer retreated for just a moment. Kellach was having a harder time keeping the strap around his throat from choking him, as his whole body just collapsed when the pain was removed._

"No, please! No, no more please!"

"Kellach? Kellach!"

 _"I still have a whole hand left," The man commented, pulling a strangled whimper from Kellach's throat as he stroked the remaining hand. "You going to give me what I want?"_

"Kellach!"

 _He wanted to so badly. He just wanted everything to stop, the pain, the suffering, everything. The man gave a test swing at his fingers, pulling a cry of alarm that collapsed into a sob as the hammer pulled away after doing no damage._

"No!" Kellach flailed trying desperately to yank free of the thing trying to restrain him, "Gods, no, please!"

"Son!" That was the word that finally broke through the flashback. Kellach blinked, trying rapidly to accommodate to the sightless world he found himself in. There were hands tight around his upper arms, and broad, hard warmth against his back. "Kellach, you're safe, we're going to protect you, I'm going to protect you."

"Please don't hurt me anymore," He whimpered, his whole body trembling with the force of the flashback. "Please, please just let me go…"

* * *

Torin hadn't expected to get off early that day, and therefore hadn't told anyone else that he might be coming home. The men of the watch had forced the early day on him.

"You need to go home and be with your family," They had insisted. Upon hearing the news of Kellach's return, and the morbid news he had brought with him, the atmosphere at work had changed. Everyone was on edge, expecting enemies to come beating down their doors at any moment. But Torin, who should have been the most alert of everyone, was the most preoccupied.

Trillian had been the first to approach him about it. "Captain, permission to speak freely?" He asked Torin at lunch a few days after Kellach's return, and a few days since Kellach and Torin had spoken.

"Permission granted." Torin said shortly, wary of what might come out of his friend's mouth.

Trillian sighed. "Torin, why are you here?"

"I have a job to do," Torin replied. "We've been made aware of a new threat to our city-"

"I know," Trillian interrupted, "But if that were the whole reason you were here, we'd see the determined Torin we see during normal threats. But instead, I see a distracted and preoccupied Torin like we haven't seen since the Sundering. And that was when you were using work to try to avoid your family at home."

Torin tensed, and lowered his sandwich to the table. At his lack of response, Trillian continued, "It's just that, sir, we'd thought you'd want to be home with what your son went through-"

"You know nothing of what my son went through, nor do you have any right to comment on my choices as his father." Torin snapped, the tone of his voice causing a few other watchers to look over.

"Yes sir, but we… some of the other watchers and I," Trillian continued, only slightly put off by Torin's tone, "think that you may be blaming yourself for Kellach's… condition, and that it may be impacting your ability to handle what has happened and what could happen to our town." When Torin was silent, he continued, "We think you're not performing your best here because your mind is still at home with your son.

"And rightfully it should be, with what the boy went through… We don't think you should come back to work until you've sorted it out."

At Torin's continued silence, Trillian seemed to grow nervous. "Of course sir, it's up to you and we don't mean to…"

"No…" Torin finally spoke, "You're not wrong." Trillian seemed shocked to not have been chewed out. "I'll put in a few more hours work, and then I'll head home."

And that was what he had done. He hadn't expected the house to be empty when he walked in. He also didn't expect the screams, his son's screams. "Kellach!" He called in alarm, heart rate skyrocketing as he flew into the house, following the sound.

He expected to find Kellach under attack when he entered the kitchen. He didn't expect to find the boy pressed up against the wall, alone, with a broken glass on the ground next to him, begging for some nonexistent force to stop hurting him. His sightless eyes stared into nothing as he clutched his hands tightly against his chest, knees pulled up in a protective position.

Torin raced up to his son, his only instinct to protect the boy, but the instant he did Kellach let out a heartbreaking cry. "No, please! No, no more please!"

"Kellach," Torin knelt, grabbing his son and pulling the boy against his chest like he hadn't since he was little. Kellach was crying, sobbing, still begging his attacker to stop. Torin had never felt so helpless. He felt as though there was nothing he could do to get through this awful flashback his boy was having.

"Kellach, son! Listen to me, I'm here. It's your Dad…" Kellach seemed to still slightly at that, but Torin could see that he was still having trouble fulling pulling himself out of the memory. "Kellach, you're safe, we're going to protect you… I'm… going to protect you."

"Please don't hurt me anymore," Kellach whimpered, his whole body trembling in Torin's arms as the man wrapped his arms around his son. "Please, please just let me go…"

"Kellach, I'm never going to let you go again," Torin promised as Kellach's sobs and pleas began to die down. "You are my son and I will protect you this time, I swear."

Torin had not been present for any of Kellach's flashbacks prior to this one. This he was partly glad for, as he had not had to see his son in this state. On the other hand, he had no idea what to do for Kellach to bring him down.

Luckily, Kellach seemed to be working himself out of the panic attack on his own. He finally turned around to try to focus his gaze on Torin, and it almost broke the man's heart how his son's gaze didn't quite meet his. "Dad?" He asked, his voice scratchy and broken, the most vulnerable Torin had seen him in a long time.

"I'm here Kellach," Torin promised, "I'm here."

* * *

Kellach tended to be disoriented, coming out of his flashbacks, but this was a situation he hadn't encountered before. Coming out into a situation he was even less sure how to handle. "Where… I mean… why…" He tried to voice his thoughts.

"You don't need to talk," Torin said, in that deep, paternal voice that used to make Kellach feel so safe. And just like that, Kellach felt like crying again. But for a completely different reason this time. As he choked on a sob, Torin tensed. "Are you through…"

"Yeah, I… I'm back, I'm here, I just…" He couldn't continue because he didn't know what he was supposed to say, or what was wrong with him. "I thought… I thought you weren't supposed to be back until later?"

Kellach felt Torin sigh against his back. There was a silence, one almost so long that Kellach started to feel awkward just cradled against his father's chest. He shifted to move when Torin started to speak.

"Some of the men at work," He started falteringly, "Suggested that I may be working harder and for longer… because I was avoiding issues at home." Kellach stiffened, hands still pulled tight to his chest. He wished so much that he could turn around and see his father's face right now.

"I thought you were mad," Kellach said quietly, still feeling vulnerable in that moment, "Mad that I hadn't told you guys about… about being…" He had to pause, before he added softly, "Blind."

"I was mad," Torin admitted, and Kellach felt a brief moment of panic, but then his father continued. "But it was at myself. That I should have been able to protect you from all the suffering and pain that you had to go through… that you're still going though."

Kellach sighed, and let his head sag. "There was nothing you could have done. I didn't even know where I was."

"But I should have been able to find you!" Torin snapped, startling Kellach. "I should have known the right places to look, the people to look for. I shouldn't have just gotten you back out of sheer luck and chance. You shouldn't have to go through life with those memories and with…" He cut himself off, but Kellach could have sworn he heard tears in his father's voice.

"And with the blindness?" He asked. "You can say it Dad."

"And with… the blindness," Torin agreed sadly. "And now that you're back, there's still nothing I can do to help you see again, and the only thing I can think of is getting back at the people who did it to you, who hurt you in the first place. And how I can protect you from ever being hurt again."

That was the most Kellach had heard come out of his father's mouth in years. And the most emotional Kellach had heard him in a long time. He paused for a moment, thinking. "I don't blame you guys, you know that right?"

"We should have been able to protect you Kellach," Torin argued, "You were only fifteen!" There were definitely tears in his voice this time around.

"And I should have been more aware and I should have found a better way to escape and maybe I should have just killed myself to spare you guys the pain of seeing me like this…" Kellach's tone was bitter, "Maybe I…"

"No!" Torin yelled, cutting off any words Kellach might have continued with. "No…" He repeated, more softly, "I would rather have you here, broken as you are, than dead. That was my biggest fear. Losing you for good and never knowing what had happened to you."

There was silence between the two for a moment. Kellach didn't know what else to say. "Thanks Dad," He finally managed.

Torin just gripped him tightly and answered, "Thank you for coming home."

* * *

Just a touchy feely bit that struck me earlier today. I realized I never gave Kellach and Torin's strained relationship closure.

And, ya know, I kinda felt like writing some torture and delving into a really screwed up part of Kellach's ordeal.

Thanks for reading!

More may or may not come based on inspiration.


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